As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,793 issued to K. E. Schubert, Sept. 9, 1975, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, it is known in the art to provide a postage meter having a rotatable printing drum, with an inking mechanism of the type which includes an inking roller contacting the printing drum, an ink reservoir having a supply roller immersed therein, and a transfer roller adapted to be intermittently moved into and out of engagement with the inking and supply rollers for transferring ink between the same and thus between the ink reservoir and printing drum. As discussed in the aforesaid patent the transfer roller is normally spring biased out of engagement with the inking and supply rollers and is urged into engagement with the same by means of an intermittently energized solenoid. Also, although not discussed in the patent, there is also provided a manually actuatable switch which is electrically connected to the solenoid energizing the solenoid from a suitable source of supply of power for the time period during which the switch is manually held actuated by the postage meter operator.
With the above described arrangement the individual postage meter operator is free to exercise his own judgement to decide upon the appropriate length of time for holding the inking switch actuated and learns on a hit-or-miss basis to avoid over-saturation of the inking roller and the concomitant problems of transferring an excessive amount of ink to the printing drum during each cycle of operation; rapidly accumulating residual ink sludge on the printing drum; and ink bleeding from the inking roller to the printing drum when the postage meter is not in use. Accordingly:
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved inking mechanism;
Another object is to provide a machine having a printing cycle and printing means including a source of supply of ink, with apparatus for controlling operation of the inking means; and
A further object is to provide apparatus for controlling the operation of roller means operable for inking the indicia imprinting means of a postage meter.